Harry Potter Halloween: House Points Ceremony

Every year we have a costume contest. I also hold a contest for food. There are always multiple prizes as I am a believer of spreading the love... This year our prizes were courtesy of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The bags were filled with joke items and some ton-tongue taffy (carmels). No, I didn't get a picture of them either...

The voting ballots were next to the Goblet of Fire. After one was done voting, they placed their paper in the Goblet to be counted and we held a little ceremony to award the prizes. I am so glad everyone will vote, it makes it a lot less stressful for me to present the awards. I like to see what everyone else thinks too!

Thanks to those who made this party a HUGE success! I couldn't have pulled it off without a TON of help from my husband and my bestie (the Bogart). They really are the best!

Harry Potter Halloween: Honeyduke's Sweet Shoppe

Honeyduke's Candy Shop is THE place to get all sorts of magical treats. I had a fun time in the bulk candy section at the store and when I set it all up, the Harry Potter Wiki was a tremendous help. 

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans

I set up a list of the possible flavors you might get if you dare to serve yourself some beans.

Yes, I made the chocolate frogs

I used these little cauldrons for the kids. They each had a few pieces of each of the candies, so the moms could better control the amount of sugar they wanted their children to consume...

I also found this recipe for frozen butterbeer. It was the highlight (in my book) of the food table. I was tempted not to share it... Somehow, I failed to get a picture... 

Harry Potter Halloween: Quidditch

I did a little research and found that there is an International Quidditch Association. There are over 300 teams worldwide who play this co-ed contact sport... for real! I kinda want to go to a match! Well, if you are interested, I based my game off the official IQA rulebook, found on their website. Who knew?!

The biggest project of the party was the 6 Quidditch hoops. The adventure started at the home improvement store. The associates there are trained on all sorts of things... I do not think Quidditch hoops was on our particular helper's list of questions he'd been asked... His face was rather priceless.

Well, 2 1/2 hours later, we came out of the Depot with tubing, electrical tubing, rebar, and gold spray paint. Our hoops measure 6 ft, 4.5 ft, and 4 ft tall. The actual hoop is 33 inches wide.

They are kinda hard to see in the picture but they turned out awesome!

 The rest of the supplies needed are 14 brooms, a sock, and 5 balls: the Quaffle (ours was a deflated red dodge ball), 3 Bludgers (I found some smaller balls at WalMart for cheap), and the Golden Snitch (I spray painted a giant bouncy ball gold).

The rules are fairly simple. Each team has 7 players. Each of the players has a broom to "ride." There is a Keeper who mans the hoops, two Beaters who use the Bludgers to "knock out" the other players, three Chasers who try to score a goal through the hoop with the Quaffle, and the Seeker who tries to catch the Snitch. You will need at least one other person to be the Snitch. It is this players job to attach the snitch to the back of his pants with the sock and do anything and everything to avoid getting caught.

Each time a ball goes through the hoop it is counted as 10 points. The Seeker that catches the Snitch earns an extra 30 points and the game ends. If you are hit with a Bludger, you are considered "knocked out." If you are knocked out then you must touch your team's hoops to return to play. If you score a goal after you are knocked out, it doesn't count. The game continues until the Snitch is caught.

I have wondered what the neighbors thought of us playing in the neighborhood park... Everyone was dressed to the hilt in wizarding garb running around with brooms between their legs... But it was a blast!

The guy on the left is the Snitch. He was amazing! 

Despite not being able to see through his hair, Hagrid was rather good at this!

As it happens, the Bogart was the winning Seeker! She was the winning play in both games we played!